Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity? Mich. vii. 18. I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord; and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin. Ps. xxxii. 6.

And the Scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Luke v. 21. "Non potest hoc cuiquam hominum cum Christo esse commune ut peccata condonet."

"No man can have this in common with Christ, that he may forgive sins." St. Ambros. epist. 76. ad Studium.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT REVEREND THE BISHOPS,

THE

REVEREND THE CLERICAL,

AND

THE GENTLEMEN LAY DEPUTIES

OF

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,

IN

GENERAL CONVENTION ASSEMBLED,

THIS ANSWER

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE HUMBLE SERVANT AND BROTHER,

THE AUTHOR.

A SHORT ANSWER.

Ar a time when the spirit of religious controversy seemed to be dormant in our land-when the different Christian societies were convinced of the delicate propriety of confining the enforcement of their peculiar tenets within the pale of their own communions-when the few theological publications now circulating among us were labouring to inculcate the fundamental doctrines of our common Christianity, and on them to erect a goodly system of mutual forbearance, harmony and love-the advocates of evangelical charity beheld, with considerable regret, the appearance of a pamphlet calculated to diminish the influence and disturb the serenity of this heavenly temper. Had the publisher of the Catholic Question been satisfied with communicating to us the issue of that interesting trial, which every liberal mind must approve and applaud; had he confined himself to the gratifying of his readers with a display of eloquent and ingenious declamation, and irresistible argument, although on a subject which never admitted of a doubt; nay, had he annexed to the account of this trial an exposition of his creed, as adopted and enforced by the council of Trent, unaccompanied with any illiberal reflections upon those who pay little regard to that council's denunciations or decrees, the writer of this reply would never have thought himself authorized to question a right to instruct the members of his Church in the tenets of their religion, or to throw over them fresh lights to demonstrate their truth.

But the reverend author of the Appendix (for I suppose him to be such) has manifestly seized upon what he conceived to be a favourable opportunity to lay his doctrines before the public, still alive to some favourable impressions

L

from the recent decision of his cause, with an air of triumph bordering upon insult, with a tone of defiance pointing to intimidation.

He enters upon his exposition by boldly asserting, as "an undeniable fact, and which our adversaries," says he, "have but too well known, that the Catholic doctrine can never be attacked with any success, but by misrepresentation; and that it wants only to be known to obtain the suffrages of upright men, and to silence the most inveterate. of its enemies.

Here the reverend author begins by indulging a spirit of illiberality, which, it seems, all the candour of his protestant advocates, all the enlightened justice of his protestant judge, had not been able to allay. He confidently throws down the gauntlet, and looks around him, either for resistance or submission. Silence on the part of Protestants, although decmed by some advisable on this occasion, might probably flatter the Rev. gentleman and his adherents with an idea of the latter; and as one of his learned advocates, although a Protestant, has been induced to assert, that "the Catholic," meaning clearly the Roman Catholic, "religion has existed for eighteen centuries, and that the sacrament of penance has existed with it;" (Cath. Ques. p. 26;) there are solid grounds for seriously appre hending, lest some persons not so well informed as the learned counsellor, may be seduced into his opinion, and into other unfounded doctrines contained in the Appendix.

The taste for religious controversy has, in great measure, gone by; yet still, when opinions by many deemed erroneous are forced upon the public eye, by a great parade of erudition, and a hardihood of assertion smiling contemptu. ously at contradiction; when the teachers of any Christian Church presume rashly to pronounce, that "in her bosom only, man can enjoy the precious advantage of forgiveness of sins; that she is the true Jerusalem, in which the true temple exists, and the true probatic pond, which heals all